Divine Noir

Seymour Chwast’s first graphic novel, published next week, sees the designer / illustrator tackle Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth century masterpiece the Divine Comedy. In this graphic re-telling of the medieval poem, Dante dons a Dick Tracy trench coat and fedora, while Virgil (his guide) sports a tuxedo, bowler hat and cane.

The protagonists’ journey through Inferno, Purgatory and Heaven is transformed by Chwast into a feast of illustrative noir: ‘Capt Charon’ ferries the new dead over to the neon lights of hell in a speedboat, the ‘wanton women of Florence’ lounge about in cocktail dresses, and one sinner - Filippo Argenti - is shot down on the docks with a Tommy Gun (below).